Computerisation of PACS to benefit small farmers: PM Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the Union Cabinet's decision on the computerization of Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) will benefit crores of farmers, particularly small and marginal farmers.

It will also enhance transparency and lead to better service delivery, he said.

The Centre on Wednesday decided to computerise all functional 63,000 Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) over the next five years with a budget outlay of Rs 2,516 crore in order to improve efficiency, transparency and accountability in their operations.

The scheme, approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will also facilitate PACS to diversify their business and undertake multiple activities.

Modi said, "Today's Cabinet decision on computerization of Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) will benefit crores of farmers, particularly small and marginal farmers. It will also enhance transparency and lead to better service delivery."

Majority of the PACS are not computerised and are still functioning manually, resulting in inefficiency and trust deficit in these societies. Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved computerization of Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) with a budget of Rs 2,516 crore.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved computerization of PACS with the objective of increasing efficiency of PACS, bringing transparency and accountability in their operations; facilitating PACS to diversify their business and undertake multiple activities/ services.

Addressing the media about the cabinet decision, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said, "This project proposes computerization of about 63,000 functional PACS over a period of five years with a total budget outlay of Rs 2,516 crore with Government of India share of Rs 1,528 crore."

The PACS constitutes the lowest tier of the three-tier Short-term cooperative credit (STCC) in the country comprising approx 13 crore farmers as its members, which is crucial for the development of the rural economy.

However, the majority of PACS have so far been not computerized and still functioning manually resulting in inefficiency and trust deficit. In some of the states, stand-alone and partial computerization of PACS has been done. There is no uniformity in the software being used by them and they are not interconnected with the DCCBs and StCBs.